


Tell Me Another? (ON HIATUS)

by HigherNoon



Category: Tales of Nowhere (Podcast)
Genre: My First Fanfic, Tales of Nowhere, Tales of Nowhere podcast, Technically my second, and will tear out your heart, but its pretty much wish fulfillment, but we dont talk about that one, good luck, im sorry, will update sporadically
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2020-12-23 18:21:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21085766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HigherNoon/pseuds/HigherNoon
Summary: The multiverse has been saved and Cafe Nowhere is safe at last. Sara has her kid and the infiniteers elect to raise him together in the cafe. But when something happens and the Infiniteers g̷o̴ ̷m̷i̵s̶s̶i̶n̵g̸, C̷̫̄o̵̭̒p̷̠͛e̸̛̼r̷͚̈́n̸͆ͅi̸̠c̵̞̓u̸͇͂s̸͇͂ ̶̤̋ë̵͎l̵͓͛e̴͇͋c̷̺͑t̴͍̋s̸̨̈́ ̵̭̂t̷͍͂o̷̬͋ ̵̝͐h̸̺͝a̷͍͑v̸̜̌e̴̡̐ ̸͙͠H̵͔͊o̷̼͛n̵̤̍d̴̥̃o̴̮͐'̴̬͊s̸̍͜ ̵̧͒k̸̹̎ī̵̧d̸̨̏ ̷̯̑r̵̛̲e̷͗͜ţ̶̋u̸̜͗ŗ̴͗n̴̮͑ ̸̧̆t̶̠̂o̴̘̒ ̷̺̎P̶̮̾ä̸̬x̶̟̄. [TEXT REDACTED].





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! So I've been working on this probably since the Deadlands arc ended, but I've got the story mostly planned out now so I should be a bit faster. That said, expect this fic to update pretty sporadically as I balance High School, 3 college courses, and a part time job! Yikes...  
If you haven't figured out yet, this fic is going to be very spoiler heavy for the podcast Tales of Nowhere, which you can find at talesofnowhere.com or wherever you get podcasts. I would suggest being completely or very nearly caught up before reading, but this chapter only goes into detail as far as the Deadlands arc.
> 
> Whenever I use ~#~, it is a scene change. In the beginning, the number tells you the age of the main character for the scene below, starting at age 5. ~0~ is just a scene break.

“Remember the Texas Ranger from the story last night? Well, he found his way back to Texas with his friends; a man that came from the stars, an elf that could make knives come out of his arm, and a beautiful woman that made light into things she could use to help people.”

“Just like Aunt Kiwi!”

“Yeah, just like Aunt Kiwi. Anyways, they found their way back to Texas and they found his sister, Jessica. She was hurting really bad and didn’t know how to stop it, and that made her do bad things. That didn’t make it okay, but it was how it was. They also found out that the Texas Ranger, well he had a brother, too. 

“Xavier, his brother, was a brave, strong man who wanted to be just like the ranger, and he helped them save Jessica and stop the man that hurt her. But he ended up getting really hurt instead. He saved the ranger’s friends, his sister...in some ways, I guess he saved the Ranger too. But he ended up dying for it, and it broke their hearts.”

“Papa, I don’t like this story…”

“Huh? Oh, sorry kiddo. Guess I got carried away. Do you want me to sto-”

“No. No, you can keep going.”

“Heh… The Ranger and his friends brought Xavier with them when they went home. They mourned him, and-”

“What does  _ mourned  _ mean?”

“Uh… They were sad that he died. They brought him home so that he didn’t have to be alone anymore. And Xavier’s ghost was able to watch as the Ranger and his friends saved the world. He was there as they kept coming back to meet up, and they celebrated Yule together, and birthdays, and they celebrated Xavier too. And he watched as you grew up, he watched when you took your first steps and chased Bubda around the Cafe, and as you made your first Trigger with me and Mama. And he gets to watch over you now too. He’s here to protect you if anything happens while the Ranger and his friends are away for a few days. Mama too, and Bubda! Don’t forget him.”

“Papa?”

“What is it?”

“Do you think he’s happy?”

“...I’d like to think so. I’d like to think he finally made it home. Goodnight, kiddo. Sleep well”

“Goodnight Papa! Have sweet dreams, don’t ever have nightmares!”

"Not ever?" 

"Uh-huh. Never." 

"Well, I'll sure try." 

~5~

“...And then I crash in all like  _ ‘Issac! Issac, you son of a-’” _

“A WORD WE WILL NOT USE in front of Hondo’s child!”

“Oh, Come on, Kirin! It’s not like he doesn’t hear worse!”

“Yeah Aunt Kiwi, what’s wrong with bitch?”

“Oh shi-”

“GODDAMNIT THAYNE, GET BACK HERE!”

~6~

“So you’re telling me that you met Papa  _ in prison!? _ ”

“Yeah, well-”

“YOU GOT ARRESTED AND YOU DIDN’T TELL ME?!”

“It never came up! Besides, we both got in there on purpose. He didn’t even do anything criminal… before jail."

“Tell me everything!”

“Okay, okay. So you remember the spaceman in your dad’s stories?”

~7~

“Grandpa, can I get a rabbit?”

“Absolutely not.”

“But why?!”

“Little Hondo. We’ve been over this. If I get you a rabbit, Bubda will eat it and get sick. Then your aunt will yell at me again. No rabbit until you are older.”

“But what if it’s tiger-striped?”

“Well…...We will see. Now go on, Henry is waiting for you upstairs.”

~9~

“Do I have to stay with Great Uncle Issac and Grammie Wexler?”

“Yes. You know Uncle Issac and the others need my help on their next mission, and besides, Grammie misses you. It’s really nice there, you would like it. There are other kids your age-”

“I don’t like the other kids. I like it here with Bubda and Henry and Grandpa! They can watch me!”

“Sweetheart, please. It’s been years since Grammie has seen you. I think you need to go see her again, for me?”

“Mmmmm… Fine.”

“Thank you. Hey.”

“Hey?”

“I love you~”

“Love you too, Mama.”

~9~

“Grammie, look! I found the old cookie recipe you were telling me about! Can we make some tonight for the picnic?”

“...”

“Grammie?”

“I, I think you need to come talk to your Grandpa Copernicus.”

“Grammie, why are you crying?”

~9~

“Why can’t I come back to Nowhere! I can help you look, I can… I can clean the machines, or work the Trigger while you go out so Bubda doesn’t get distracted again…”

“I’m sorry, little Hondo, but it could be dangerous. If I did not come back and you were left in Nowhere alone, your mother would kill me. You are still a boy with needs, and right now you need to be somewhere safe.”

“But I wouldn’t be alone, I would have Bubda and Angie and-”

“Hondo, I know you want to help, I understand that. But until we know what happened to your parents, I simply cannot have you where you could be in danger. End of discussion. Give my apologies to your Grandmother. I… I love you.”

“Grandpa?”

“...”

~10~

“Grammie, when are we having the funeral?”

“What funeral, sweetie?”

“I… For Papa and Mama?”

“Oh sweetheart, we’ve been over this. Your mama, well she’s been gone for a long time. She’s already been buried.”

“...oh. What about Papa?”

"I'm sorry Hondo, we just don't know where he is, remember? Nobody’s seen him since your mama left." 

“I-yeah. Yeah, sorry…”

~12~

#  Chapter One

Light shines into the cave, illuminating the dusty air in large rays and casting long shadows across the cold stone floor. Hondo coughs as he crawls over the small pile of rocks halfheartedly blocking entry to what seems to be a time capsule. Looking around, he sees things that he thought only existed in stories. Boxes of metal and wire line the walls in all but one corner, where small scratches are etched into the ground. Maps and blueprints with peeling corners hang on the walls depicting Pax and it’s star system, including the 4 other planets orbiting this sun. Various machines around the room cling to the last vestiges of power in their batteries, red lights blinking almost lazily. When he touches them, his fingertips come away black with grease and dust. Hondo sighs and starts sorting through the mess.

Great Uncle Issac had told him about his grandfather, Raymond, and how he flew away on a spaceship he had built with his own two hands, secreted away in the mountains somewhere. Hondo used to pretend that Raymond was still out there, somewhere hidden in the stars, and that one day he would come back and take him away. It’s impossible, the spaceship is sitting in their front yard after all, and Talmadge assures Hondo that Raymond is long dead, but he couldn’t help himself. He loves his family and all, but he can’t stand the constant monotonous routine of milking the horses and tending to the gardens, and helping Wesley and Seth with their homework, and going to school just for all the kids to look at him like they don’t quite know who he is.

Of course, Hondo doesn’t quite know either. Not like in the movies where he needs to go on an adventure and find himself, more like he keeps seeing things in the edge of his vision, and it’s gone when he turns to look. Some days he swears he doesn’t know his own name, that “Hondo” is just a placeholder until he can remember. He has faith that Raymond can help answer that for him, in some way or another.

As Hondo moves the next box, he pauses. Beneath it sits a large plastic bin, with “Do Not Touch” scrawled across the lid in obnoxiously thick red sharpie. With a huff, he sets down his load and pops open the latches securing the lid. The inside is loaded with folders and loose papers covered in scratched-out numbers and long strings of math that take up entire pages, sketches of twisted graphs forming tunnels and mobius-strips, and other odd shapes surrounded by question marks. On top of it all sits a small data pad with a slightly cracked screen. 

Hondo picks it up carefully, looking it over in his hands for a button or microphone to interact with. Instead, it lights up like a glow stick in his hands, and a beam of light shoots out of the screen. The sudden change in illumination is jarring, and Hondo looks away with a curse.

“My name is Denton Stratt,” A teenage boy, looking just a little bit older than Hondo, stands in front of him. Hondo yelps, dropping the data pad so it bounces on the stone floor. The projection of Denton shifts slightly, but continued playing as if undisturbed.

“If you have found this, then I would like to ask that you stop going through my things. There is a lot of extremely experimental and highly dangerous technologies in there that, when used incorrectly, could react in unexpected and catastrophic ways. In other words, things could get bad.”

When Hondo previously looked around, he noticed that a lot of the things in the cave look to have been altered tech that already existed, with exceptions of course. The most threatening thing there was probably the toaster. The recording probably wasn’t talking about that, though.

“The blueprints contained in this bin depict a device that dumped me in this world, effectively separating me from my family. I also theorize that it’s original destruction may have pertained to the scream that happened 600 years ago.”

Hondo had heard about that. The scream was an event that affected psionic users all across the universe, leading to the discontinuation of jump gates and the isolation of Pax entirely before his mom came home with the Exile of Fate. But if Denton were old enough to interact with the scream, how did this recording even get into Raymond’s cave? The hologram continued before Hondo could finish his thoughts.

“I have to leave soon, but I can’t take this with me. In all honesty I should destroy it but… Well then I wouldn’t be able to get back home, and I’m not ready to let that go quite yet. I ask that you leave this device as is, failure to use the device properly can result in extensive damage to the multiverse.” Denton chuckles dryly, his projection turning away from the camera and wiping his hands nervously on his pants, “Wouldn’t I know? But I’m serious. Issac, stay out.”

The hologram points at the camera to punctuate the last sentence, and then retracts into the datapad, leaving the cavern as dark and quiet as before. Silently, Hondo reaches into the bin and pulls out a folder. Scrawled across the front in neat, condensed handwriting is the title:

_ Infinity Trigger Prototype #2 _

_ Do Not Touch _

Hondo considers this for a moment, then gets to work.

~0~

“I just don’t understand it, Talmadge. I mean, the blueprints make it look like it’s just a small warp drive. What could possibly be so dangerous about that?” Hondo sprawls across the captain’s chair, legs thrown carelessly across the arm and back as he tosses a small bolt up and down to himself. It helps him think when he has someone to talk to, and Talmadge might be able to provide some insight a person wouldn’t think of. Besides, nobody bothers him in the ship.

Ever dutiful, Talmadge answers, “I believe it has something to do with the augmented operating system. It appears to be some sort of transport, yes, but I do not believe that it’s current capabilities would move you anywhere within space.”

Hondo catches the bolt again and sits up, glancing towards the front monitor as if there would be a person there, “What’s that supposed to mean? Is this some sort of time machine?”

“I’m afraid I am unable to answer that question.” the AI supplies, and Hondo scoffs, relaxing into his seat once more, “Of course not. Hey, did you ever figure out who this Denton guy is supposed to be like I asked?”

“My facial recognition software show that the files you gave me are 98.2% consistent with Raymond Wexler.”

Hondo sits up hurriedly, hitting his leg on the corner of the chair with a wince, “What!”

“My facial recognition software-”

“I heard what you said, Talmadge. It’s just,  _ off _ …”

“What do you mean by that, sir?”

“I  _ mean _ ,” Hondo stands, pacing the floor anxiously, “This Denton Strat claims to have been separated from his family, to be from another world entirely, I… The way he talks just doesn’t make sense! It feels like there’s something much bigger here,” Hondo runs his hands through his hair, trying to think if there was anything else in the cave that could help make sense of this. “There was something missing from the lab! There was an empty corner with drag marks all over the floor, there might be something deeper in the cave system.”

“If I may, sir.” Talmadge speaks up, “I would not advise spelunking in unexplored areas without the proper equipment or a partner to ensure safety in case of an accident.”

“Its not  _ unexplored,  _ per say. I mean, someone must have gone down there when they took the whatever-it-was away.” Hondo reasons, making for the exit.

“Sir?”

“Thanks Talmadge! I’ll be back later~”

~0~

  
  


Hondo had spent the past few weeks cleaning out Raymond’s cave since it’s rediscovery, and while it was still extremely dusty, it was starting to shape up nicely. Today, however, he is here for a different reason. Hondo passes the broom resting against the doorframe and heads into the main room to investigate further. Now that he looks closer he can see that the shallow grooves in the stone floor seem to lead deeper into the cave. Hondo pushes aside a wayward pile of old boxes to reveal a tunnel, walls scraped from a tight squeeze. He pauses only a moment before switching on Cousin Seth’s toy headlamp and venturing into the dark. 

Even with the headlamp, the cavern was still dark to its core. Hondo walks with one hand brushing against chalky stone to help keep his footing on the uneven floor. That doesn't seem to matter though, as a wall of rubble cuts him off nearly at the pass. Not willing to give up just yet, Hondo starts poking and prodding the stones in the wall. Some of the stones are rooted in place, but others feel loose and unburdened. It’s almost like… a high stakes game of Jenga.

Cautiously, he starts tugging some of the stones to see which ones are stuck and which could be removed safely. After nearly ten minutes of testing, Hondo swallows his breath and holds it in his throat, pulling on a loose rock. It slides out of its slot accompanied by a small scraping noise, but not accompanied by the crash of a rockslide. 

Hondo releases a sigh and tosses the stone aside, peeking into the hole the rock had created to see…  _ more rocks.  _ With a huff, he starts poking around the hole with his fingers. Some of the other rocks could be either pushed or pulled out, but after all that is said and done, there is still only a hole just big enough to stick his arm through. He won't be able to use the headlamp this way and still look through, but he's worked too hard to stop here. 

“Sorry Seth…” Hondo takes off the headlamp and drops it through the hole. It falls to the ground with an echoing crack that makes Hondo flinch, but a faint light pours from the hole none the less. 

Looking inside, he sees a small cavern with rubble and scorch marks littered around like generously applied confetti. Pieces of stone with unnatural cuts and cracks sit in cluttered piles, casting large shadows in the low source of light and blocking the walls from view. In the center of it all is a smudge, almost like a bubbling fog. It almost looks like the air is visible, and you can see the pockets of density like foam in the tide, shifting and coming together to fade in and out of view. It ‘s faint, and could probably be passed off as dust moving around in the new breeze replacing formerly stale air, but it doesn’t settle. Hondo is sure it’s there, just not sure what it is or what it could mean.

But there is no machine in this room, just the strange disturbance. Were they related? What happened in this cave? Hondo decides he has to learn more.

~0~

  
  


“Hey, Uh… Great Uncle Issac?” 

“In here, come give me a hand!” Hondo slips through the door into the woodshop, dropping his backpack in the corner. He finds Great Uncle Issac struggling with trying to handle both a vice and a circular saw, and quickly comes to help stabilize the board while Great Uncle Issac finishes the cut. Hondo understands why Great Uncle Issac likes it in the woodshop. The hum of the saws and the dust in the air make a perfect background static to think as much as you want, or focus everything on the curves of the cuts to forget to think altogether. It’s a little facet of perfect, at least in Hondo’s eyes. 

Once the scrap wood falls to the ground with a satisfying  _ thwap,  _ Great Uncle Issac releases the trigger on the saw and raises his safety goggles to look Hondo in the eyes. “Thank you, boy. Now why is it that you’re looking for me?”

Hondo hesitates. He doesn’t know why, but for some reason people tend to get upset when he tries to talk about his parents. Nobody seems to know anything about what either of them were like before or after his mama dropped both him and the Exile here and left for good. He hadn’t tried asking about Raymond though, and he could only hope that Great Uncle Issac would warm up for his big brother.

“Can you tell me about my Grandpa Raymond?”

Great Uncle Issac freezes, and Hondo prepares for the worst, but then he realizes Great Uncle Issac doesn’t look closed off or defensive, just off guard and thoughtful. “Well, there’s a lot to that story, Hondo. How about we clean up in here and then me and you can have this talk helping Grandma with dinner, okay?” 

Hondo nods and begins cleaning up, and within the hour they’re inside and elbow deep in bread dough.

Great Uncle Issac clears his throat, and Hondo looks up at him. “Your grandfather, well he was a boy just as brilliant as you. By the time he was four years old, he was already outside fixing our tractors and what have you.” He chuckles, “But he never really seemed to be at home with us, what with all his muttering. He didn’t spend much time at home outside of his chores and meals, and even then he was stuck in his own head. Whenever he could, he went on up the side of them there mountains. Now I ain’t ever followed him all the way up, but he was going somewhere, day after day, the same place. I might reckon that there’s where he was building the spaceship in our lawn...” 

Hondo lets his gaze fall to the dough in his hands, “So you don’t know about his cave?”

Great Uncle Issac lookes over at him curiously, “What cave?”

Hondo knows better than to try lying, it hadn’t worked for him before, “I found a cave in the mountains, and a lot of the stuff looked like his.”

“What kind of stuff is there?” He could tell Great Uncle Issac was trying at nonchalance. Hondo could appreciate that.

“Oh, you know… A lot of blueprints, TL 4 stuff, a toaster…”Hondo shuffles his feet as he starts filling the bread pan with his dough. 

Great Uncle Issac lets out a chuckle, “A toaster, huh? Is that what has you so interested in your grandfather?”

“Would you believe me if I said yes?”

“No, Hondo, I don’t think I would.”

Hondo takes a deep breath, unsure of how Great Uncle Issac would take hearing about the recording, let alone the  _ Infinity Trigger _ . Just as he’s about to speak, Grandma Opal comes into the kitchen, “Issac, what on Pax is taking you so long to get that bread in the oven!?”

Hondo focuses his energy on helping with dinner, and Great Uncle Issac is kind enough to drop this line of questioning, at least for now. 

~0~

That night, the whole family gathers around a loaf of fresh brioche bread, mashed potatoes, and a tender horse roast. Aunt Rose insists on serving Seth and Wesley, despite them both being teenagers, but their protests are quickly quieted with only a look. Once everyone has food in front of them, Grandma Opal sits down and a chorus of gratitudes ring out. 

“Don’t just thank me, Issac and Hondo helped me all afternoon baking the bread and such.” Grandma Opal smiles at Hondo, gratefully. 

“Why thank you, boys, it smells wonderful.” Aunt rose comments, elbowing her boys. 

“Well, its not like he has anything better to do…” Seth grumbles, rubbing his elbowed arm as Rose looks indignant at her son. 

“Nah, I’m sure he’s been really busy lately with something nerdy.” Wesley suggests.

“Speaking of  _ nerd things,”  _ Great Uncle Issac buts in to diffuse the situation, “How is studying going? I hear your finals are next week.”

“I mean, they’re doing pretty alright,,,” Wesley mumbles, suddenly becoming very interested in his potatoes.

“Hasn’t Hondo been helping you two?” Grandma Opal grins to herself, just a little smug.

“Yeah. So?” Seth asks defensively. 

“Maybe you outta be a bit nicer to him.” Grandma Opal shrugs, taking a bite of the roast, “He won’t be on the farm forever.”

“Yeah,  _ he’ll probably get lost in the mountains.”  _ Wesley stage whispers to Seth, who low fives him under the table.

“Wesley Alexander!” Rose gasps, “for Lord's sake would it kill you to play nice at one dinner?!”

“What? I don’t want to have to go looking for him again!”

“That was once, Wesley, I was ten!” Hondo defends himself, and Seth scoffs.

“Maybe if you got lost out there, you’d find your parents.”

The sound of a water glass hitting a table fills the room like a gavel, resonating with an unspoken sentence as Grandma Opal stands. “Seth Joshua Ridgeway, don’t you  _ ever  _ say nothin’ like that again.”

“Grandma, why do you gotta hurt him like that? Ever since his daddy left, he’s as much a Wexler as me and you.” Aunt Rose tries to defend him as Seth speaks over her.

“I’m more of a Wexler than him. We don’t even know where he came from!”

Wesley smacks Seth upside the head, but Hondo doesn’t see it. All he sees is white as the kitchen door slams shut behind him.

  
  


~0~

The cave would be the first place anyone would look, and right now Hondo needs to be alone, so he walks. He walks into the mountains and he passes the cave and keeps walking through trees and grasses and thistles until he feels like he can’t walk any more. The sky stretches above him, the crop fields below him, and endless pines all around. The sheer volume of it all envelops him and holds him in a way he can’t explain. Rather than making him feel lost, small, or whatever other words you want to use, it makes him feel safe. There is so much out there that even if he died, even if he never existed at all, he knows the world would keep on living and it would still be warm. It makes him feel that no matter how bad it gets, it’s still good somewhere, all he has to do is look for it.

He sits against a tree trunk and just… breathes. He lets his eyelids close and tries to remember. Remembering always helps. There was a story he was told as a kid, about a team of superheroes who saved everything. They went from world to world and stopped them from falling apart. They saved each other and their family and all of their friends. They loved him. He doesn’t know why but he knows that above all else.

Most days, his family here on the farm was the same. They watched out for each other and made sure no Wexler got left behind. Yeah, Seth and Wesley were annoying, but they’ve never aimed to be so hurtful before today. Maybe it was because Seth was stressed about his final exams before graduation? Hondo had been tutoring him for nearly 2 weeks straight and to his credit he was getting there. Either way, it doesn’t matter. Aunt Rose is surely lecturing them right about now. He should probably be getting home soon. 

Hondo opens his eyes and lets the stars flood in. There are so many it’s almost blinding. He had once tried giving each star a number, just so he could try and comprehend how many there were. He had laid outside for nearly the whole night before someone came out and made him go to bed, telling him the stars move, so there would always be more to count. He had ended up crying until he fell asleep a few minutes later, and stayed in bed until half past noon the day after. 

Hondo sits up, deciding he could use a few more minutes before going back, and pulls out his data pad. He opens the blueprints for the Infinity Trigger, projecting a 3-D scan of the pieces he had already assembled to compare the two. He had used all the provided materials, but it looks like pieces were still missing, most notably a power source. The only thing he can think of on Pax that could provide even nearly enough power is probably the battery on the Exile of Fate, and that’s severely off limits. Maybe he can ask Talmadge to help him build a replica? Other than that, all he really needs to get it up and running is a memory chip and a concave lens. He could probably just repurpose those from other machines in the workshop, or even a scrapyard. Hondo’s pulled out of his thoughts by a twig snapping nearby. When he looks over, he sees Great Uncle Issac making his way up the mountain with a flashlight in one hand and Hondo’s coat in the other. Hondo quickly collapses the projection before Issac can see.

“Hondo! Hondo, where are you?” Great Uncle Issac huffs from the incline.

“I’m over here!” Hondo flicks his data pad’s flashlight on and off a few times to get his attention, and Great Uncle Issac catches up to him. 

“Hondo, thank heavens. Are you hurt?”

Hondo shakes his head, “No, no I’m fine. What’s going on?”

Great Uncle Issac shakes his head in turn, “Seth and Wesley are grounded for a few weeks, extra chores and what have you. Things have calmed down, you should come home.”

“I was on my way, promise.” Hondo fibs, not wanting to disclose his thoughts at the moment.

“Well then, mind helping an old man down the mountain?” Great Uncle Issac puts his hands on his hips playfully, and Hondo smiles.

“Aw, you aren’t that old,  _ Grandpa. _ ”

“That’s Great Uncle to you.”

~0~

“In order to build a battery of that caliber, you would need a lithium-alloy unavailable on this side of the planet, as well as a way to apply 4.1 tons of pressure to press it to 1/100th of an inch thick.” Talmadge speaks to Hondo in a tone that would sound patronizing if he wasn’t a machine unable to talk with any other inflection unless told otherwise. 

Hondo very nearly laughs, “What? How the hell did Raymond do that?”

“When I came online, I was already hooked up to my current battery.”

“But I thought that lithium Ion batteries had a lifespan of 5 years maximum?” Hondo rifles through the various compartments in the Exile trying to find the user manual, despite not having found it in over 3 years.

“That is generally correct, sir. The polymers within my battery cell seem to be exemplary.”

“That’s an understatement. Hey, Talmadge, are there any existing batteries on Pax that could give me an output of 13,000 volts?”

“Only mine, sir”

“Well, could I collect batteries from tractors or something?”

“Sir, that much electricity is used to power the entire Fate Province. Unless you connect the machine to the power grid, it would be virtually impossible to get that much power. Even then, a power surge like that could shut off the electricity to half the planet.”

“So, you’re saying that it’s impossible for me to get the Infinity Trigger running?” Hondo shuts the cupboard he was searching through to look at where the A.I.’s harddrive is connected to the ship, incredulous.

“Not at all sir, you could remove the battery pack from this ship and connect it to the machine you are trying to power.” He responds with the obvious, ever patient.

“But then you would die…”

“I am not alive, sir.”

“That doesn’t matter, You would still power down and you yourself said it would be virtually impossible to get adequate power running through the ship again.

“Untrue sir, I said nothing of the sort because it is untrue. The Exile of Fate uses considerably less power than is provided to it through the battery.”

Hondo blinks, frustrated this hadn’t been mentioned earlier, “Well, how could I get a battery for the ship?!?”

“It would take approximately 5 or 6 12-volt batteries, which could be collected from tractors, cars, or other vehicles.”

“Okay… okay that might be doable.”

“Is there anything else I can do for you, sir?”

Hondo settles into the captain seat, ready to be there for a while. “Tell me about Raymond Wexler after he left Pax.”

“Raymond Wexler was captain of the Exile of Fate until his death. He was married to Catherine "Cat" Wexler for 32 years and had two children. His daughter, Sara Wexler, took over the Exile upon his death. Raymond became known as  _ “The Wanderer”  _ after his death due to his series of video diaries that supposedly led to a  _ “Wanderer’s Cache”.  _ This alter-ego became a sort of folk legend within various groups throughout the universe, largely military circles and small resistance groups.”

Hondo sits up a little straighter, “You mentioned he had two children.”

“Yes.”

“Who were they?”

“Sara Wexler and his son.”

Hondo huffs a little indignantly, “Who was Raymond Wexler’s son, Talmadge?”

A small error message appeared on the central screen, “That data seems to have been redacted, sir.”

“Can you override it?”

The error message minimizes and a loading icon replaces it for all of two seconds before it comes back. “I’m sorry sir, but I cannot access that information.”

“Are you serious?” Hondo runs a hand through his hair, thinking.

“Completely.”

“That was rhetorical, Talmadge.”

“My apologies, sir.”

He waves a hand in the air, despite the computer’s inability to understand the gesture, “It’s fine. Was the Wanderer’s Cache ever found?”

“That data has also been redacted, sir.”

Hondo furrows his brow, “What about Sarah Wexler, what happened to her?’

“That data has been-”

“Redacted, yeah I figured. Talmadge, print out the activity log for the past 13 years. I want to figure out who deleted half your harddrive.”

“Right away, sir” The console whirred as papers started flooding out of one of the dashboards, a lot more papers than he honestly expected. As far as he knew, he was the only one who used the Exile of Fate anymore. 

Skimming the papers, most of the activity has been Hondo, but towards the end there are some other names. His mom used the ship, but Hondo already knew that. Great Uncle Issac is on there, registered with three guests. Hondo would rather not know what happened there. Other than that, nothing since a little before Hondo was even born. He’s not going to find anything out this way.

~0~

It takes a few months, but Hondo is able to save up enough of his allowance to get 7 working batteries from the nearby junkyard pulled from various makes of cars. In the meantime, absolutely no one seems willing or able to tell him about this Son Wexler. Nobody seems to know anything about the Wanderer’s Cache or Catherine Wexler either (though he refuses to ask Great Uncle Issac what happened 13 years ago). It’s like Raymond died the instant he left the atmosphere. If it wasn’t for Hondo, he’s pretty sure that his family might believe so. 

It’s a relatively quick matter to exchange the Exile’s battery for the pseudo-pack that Hondo assembled, and a lot less quick to haul the nearly 80 pound battery up half a mountain in a little red wagon. Once he gets it in the cave, it’s a bit better.

Hondo crouches down to pull off the side panel and connect the battery to the Infinity Trigger. It seems like the opening on the side of the bottom ring was tailored to match with the Exile’s battery. It takes a little bit of fiddling to get the ports to line up with the plugs, but soon enough it slides in and the machine lights up with cool electric blue highlights wrapping around the metal, humming to life.

For the longest time Hondo just stares. He remembers when he was little, making spacecraft models with crooked wings and watching as they glided a warped path from the tops of ladders. He marvels at how much this machine feels like home. He puts a hand on it and feels the low vibration and warmth emanating from within and closes his eyes. He could swear that he doesn’t see the normal black of a closed eyelid, but a much lighter white. 

“Hondo?”

He startles back from the machine guiltily, pulling his hand back to his side. “Hi, Great Uncle Issac…”

“What are you doing in here, boy?” Great Uncle Issac bumps a makeshift table while sidestepping some boxes, cursing under his breath, “I thought you said you cleaned this place up.”

“Its a work in progress! And I was just…” Hondo trailed off, scuffing his shoe on the floor

“I’m listening.”

“Raymond left some blueprints in here, and I wanted to try building them. Just like a model airplane?” Hondo tries.

“Oh? What’s this one?” Great Uncle Issac moves to stand next to him, running his hand across the cool metal of the Trigger, looking more at the machine than Hondo.

“He called it the  _ Infinity Trigger _ . I think it’s like a jump gate, just smaller.”

“Well, does it work?”

“I haven’t tried it yet.”

“Oh, I see… So where did you want to go?”

“What?”

“Kid, I know you. You ain’t just gonna build something like this and let it rust in a corner. Where are you going?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then why did you build it?”

Hondo shrugs, picking at his nails

“Hondo?” Great Uncle Issac turned to face him fully now, sliding his hand off the metal with a small squeak _ . _

“I just thought… If Raymond raised Sara-”

“Raymond’s dead, Hondo.”

“We don’t  _ know  _ that!”

“Hondo, he’s been gone for nearly 50 years!”

“I know.”

“He’d be almost as old as me,”

“I know.”

“And even if he were out there, you wouldn’t even know where to begin to look!”

“I know! I get it, Great Uncle Issac. I’m just a stupid kid who doesn’t know what he’s doing. I know!” Hondo turns away, swallowing the rest of his words.

“Hondo, I’m not saying that-”

“That’s exactly what you’re saying. You want me to stay here where it’s safe...”

“Yes, please.”

“... Even if I’m not happy here.”

“Hondo, what are you saying?”

“Have you really not seen it? I love you but Seth and Wesley are dicks-”

“Watch your mouth.”

“-and Aunt Rose looks at me like I’m a dog at the dinner table. All the kids at school make fun of me for not having a family-”

“You have a family.”

“Not one they care about.”

“Hondo!”

“I just want to know! I want to know why Mom left me here, or why my father doesn’t seem to exist. Talmadge can’t even track his DNA, for Lord’s sake.”

“You aren’t gonna do that by throwing yourself into space, Hondo.”

“That’s not even my name!”

“...What?”

“I don’t know why, but I know. Hondo wasn’t my name, or at least not all of it. Everyone forgot my real one.”

“That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. I don’t know what on Pax you’ve gotten into your head, but I think it’s about time you came home.” Great Uncle Issac starts to walk towards him, as if to take him by the arm, but Hondo was already upset and those words make him stop thinking or caring. 

“Yeah, I think it is.”

He jumps up the small step onto the Infinity Trigger, and presses a button on the control panel.

~0~

“Hondo, stop!” Issac reaches out to save his son _great nephew _as he slams his palm onto a button on some strange panel attached to the machine. He’s rewarded by a shock wave, almost like a strong wind, knocking him over as the top of the machine starts spinning. Before he can even stand up fully, he’s blinded by a pillar of white completely engulfing Hondo, so bright that not a single shadow is left inside the cave.

When Issac is finally able to see again, he’s alone in the cave.

“Hondo?”

The only response he gets is a small putter from one end of the machine as something blows, and the blue lights that wrap around the metal rings and pillars go dark.

~0~

End Chapter One

~0~


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hondo wakes up in the lab to meet a few friends, both old and new~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey~ So I am taking a little longer than I expected to write these chapters... Eventually I'll figure out how to write a backlog instead of posting the second things are ready, but not today.

All he remembers is light.

Hondo feels the vibrations of the infinity trigger beneath him as they grow, becoming violent rumbles rather than comforting hums. Light fills the room until there aren’t any shadows left and wind surrounds him, pushing and pulling at him and forcing him to stand stock-still in the center of the pad as the light gets brighter, bleaching the room and leaving nothing for him to see but white. The wind forces itself on him, filling his lungs and compressing them at the same time. Then it moves, and Hondo has just enough time to feel himself pulled away with a lurch before he can’t feel anything at all.

And then he opens his eyes. A middle-aged woman with long blonde ringlets held back in a ponytail and wearing a waitress uniform is crouching beside him, looking quite worried. 

“Well good morning, sugar. Took you quite a while to wake up, are you alright?”

Hondo sits up, looking around he seems to be in a booth in some sort of restaurant. A white chromatic counter dotted with barstools sits in the middle of the room and sleek, minimalistic tables line the wall in front of the windows next to him. Outside is completely... white?

He shakes his head to clear it, then remembers that he isn’t alone and his company asked him a question. He looks up at her and blinks for a moment, rubbing his eyes. 

“I’m sorry, what?”

She smiles at him and sets down a cup of something steaming, “I asked if you were okay, sugar.”

“Yeah, I think so…” Hondo leans over to see into the cup, a tea bag hanging on the edge, and looks back at the waitress, spotting the nametag Angie, “Where am I?”

“Why, you’re in Café Nowhere. Is there anything I can get you? You must be starving.”

“What planet is that on? Why is it so bright outside?”

“I’m not quite sure how to answer that. Normally there would be some scientist or what have you lounging about, but he’s been gone for a while now.” She stops and considers for a moment, “Why don’t you try the tea I brought you. It’s calming on the nerves. Call me over if you decide on what you wanna eat, okay pumpkin?”

Hondo nods to her, and she deposits a menu on the table before walking back behind the counter to start wiping down appliances. A glance over the menu reveals very strange food items, most seeming to be named some sort of pun. Realizing he doesn’t have any money on him, and he isn’t even sure what currency they use here, Hondo sets the menu down and chooses to focus on the hopefully complimentary drink in front of him. 

The tea is quite good. The warmth of the ceramic mug against his hand helps him focus rather than panic. What is he going to do now? He has no idea where he is, how he got here, or how to get home. Didn’t Denton Stratt mention that his machine could damage the multiverse? What if there isn’t a home to go back to, just because he was angry and impulsive?

“That is not the face of someone who is okay, sugar. Tell Angie what’s the matter.”

Angie walks over to the table and sits down across from Hondo, setting down a tray of fun-sized brownies and 2 heaping bowls of ice cream. Once the food is situated, she folds her arms on the table and waits.

Hondo stares dumbly “What?”

“You were crying. If you talk to me, I just might be able to help.”

Reflexively, Hondo paws at his face and feels the unexpected tears. Wiping them away, he whispers, “Sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

“Nonsense. Its nothing to apologize for.” Angie reassures him, tone kind but stern.

“It’s just… I’m lost out here, and I don’t even know if my folks are alright, and I just had a fight with my Great Uncle Issac before…” Hondo stops to consider what actually happened, and what that would even be called. “...before leaving, I suppose.”

“Why’d you leave?” She tilts her head like a curious puppy, twisting her spoon in the ice cream bowl in front of her to smooth out the dessert as she listens.

“I guess I was upset at him?” Hondo leans over to pick up a brownie and starts tearing it into small chunks that he drops into his own bowl, “He was treating me like a little kid, refusing to listen to me just ‘cause I said he could be wrong. I was being stupid.”

“And what did you learn?”

The question catches him by surprise, and he looks up from his chocolate-covered fingers to meet her cobalt blue eyes, “I’m sorry?”

“What did you learn?” She repeats. 

“I, uh…” He shakes his head, “What does that matter?”

She sighs, “It’s okay if you made a mistake, sugar, just as long as you learn from it. Most anything can be fixed, most anything that can’t can be forgiven, as long as you learn from it and don’t do it again.”

Seriously doubtful, but accustomed to taking people’s words, Hondo tries again. “I guess, I learned not to build a machine that can destroy the world and then use it out of spite?”

Angie looks at him, unimpressed.

~0~

A little while later, after the dishes have been cleared and most of the nerves have been settled, Angie suggests he stay the night and regroup in the morning. “A good night’s sleep should help clear your head and make sure you don’t act on a whim.”

“I’m very grateful for your help, Angie, but I’d prefer not to sleep in a Diner booth.”

She chuckles at him, hanging up her apron and turning off the neon sign, closing the café for the night. “I would hope not. Especially when there’s a Hotel just over there.”

Upon his questioning, Angie shows him through a door just left of the kitchen area. When she opens it, Hondo sees a carpeted lobby with a reception desk and several comfy-looking sitting areas. 

Incredulous, he chuckles, “Why is this here?”

“For people like you who need a place to stay,” Angie replies warmly.

“Does this happen often?”

“More than it should… I’m heading home for the night. Sleep well, kiddo.” She ruffles his hair before heading back through the door into the café and closing it. 

Hondo turns back around towards the reception desk, now noticing a young man with fair skin and jet black hair wearing a dark blue concierge uniform with gold highlights. The man notices him and smiles.

“Ah, good evening Mr. Wexler. How great it is to see you again.”

Hondo cautiously approaches the desk, “I’m sorry, but who are you?”

The man smiles kindly, “My name is Elliot Laurent and I am the caretaker of this Hotel. Your usual room, I would assume?”  
“I’m sorry, but I think you have me confused with someone else.”

“Are you not Mr. Wexler?”

“Well, yes, but I’ve never been here before.”

“I’m sorry, but you are in my records. If you would prefer, we could arrange a different room for you?”

“Can… Can I see your registry?”

“I’m sorry, but that is strictly against policy.”

“Oh, okay, well…” Hondo shuffles awkwardly as Elliot searches for something before handing him a small brass key and a security pass with a wallet-sized photo of him above his name and a coded chip. Swallowing his confusion as to how exactly this exists, Hondo replies, “Thank you.”

“My pleasure, enjoy your stay.”

“You too, or…mmm.” Hondo, blushing, looks at his room key to find the number 504 and calls the elevator with his card, not making eye contact again. As the elevator doors slide closed, Hondo catches sight of Elliot smiling to himself and relaxes slightly.

Walking through the plain hallways of Hotel Nowhere, Hondo finds room 504 and pauses. He takes a deep breath, telling himself “It’s only for tonight,” and going in. The key sticks a little in the lock, but the door opens with a soft click. 

Automatic sensors turn on the light. A twin-sized bed sits up against a window overlooking the mountains from the Fate Province at dusk, huge and purple beneath a dark blue sky subtly freckled with stars. A wooden windowsill makes for a fine shelf with an alarm clock and an old model space ship that Great Uncle Issac helped him build on his 10th birthday. 

Next to the window on off-white walls are posters and pencil sketches and photographs from various community events. A promotional poster for the Victory Alliance Exploration Program prominently features an astronaut in free float, tethered to the ship in the background, an 8th-grade math test scored 95/100 in bold red next to Seth’s name is tacked up next to a slightly crumpled doodle of a stick figure giving a thumbs up, and a calendar with most of the days marked off matches the one he has at home, complete with Wesley’s graduation next month. 

As Hondo steps in, letting the door swing softly shut behind him, he fumbles for the lightswitch on instinct and is all but swallowed by darkness. Near instantly the room lights back up in a pale green as nearly a hundred glow stars lining the ceiling and upper wall come to life, constellations mapped out with near-perfect accuracy. In the center, a moderately sized model of the Pax solar system floats on invisible strings, spinning lazily. 

Hondo walks further into the room, spinning and looking around in wonder. After a few minutes, he turns the light back on to see easier and investigate properly. Pretending that he absolutely is not crying, even a little, Hondo opens an interior door that happens to lead to a small bathroom complete with a slightly leaky faucet. A second door houses a wardrobe he doesn’t fully recognize, but it seems to fit both him and his style just fine. When all is said and done, Hondo is left clad in a mismatched pajama set, the legs being a diamond pattern and the shirt a striped button-up, and he realizes how completely drained he is. 

“Tomorrow,” He thinks out loud, “I’ll start finding a way home.”

But for now, he sleeps. While the hotel may be quiet out in the halls or down in the lobby, Hondo falls asleep listening to the soft chirp of crickets and the occasional whinny, and it sounds like home.

~0~

The next morning, Hondo dresses in dark blue jeans and a tee from a band he doesn’t know and heads down to the café. After refusing to order dinner last night, his stomach isn’t too happy with him. 

When he brings up his lack of finances to Angie, she waves him off, “You don’t need money here, sugar. We take care of our own.”

Sitting at a table with bacon, eggs, and a generous helping of hashbrowns, Hondo is once again surprised by the lack of patrons. “Why aren’t there more people here, Angie? It’s a really nice place, after all.” He adds the last part quickly, not wanting to sound rude. 

“Not a lot of people come through here.” She sets down a large glass of orange juice and a couple of spice shakers labeled S and P. “But we’ve got everything we need right here, so it don’t bother me. Anything else I can get you?”

Hondo shakes his head, and Angie walks back into the kitchen, humming.

Finishing breakfast, Hondo piles everything as neatly as possible on the table and walks nervously to the front door. Stepping outside, he confirms that no, there is no paint on the windows, the entirety of outside is blank. Walking the perimeter of the building yields… interesting results. Café Nowhere is about the size he expected, but by the time he makes it back to the front door, he hasn’t found the hotel. 

He steps inside to confirm that this is indeed the same door and spies Angie carrying his plates back behind the counter, his table right where he left it. Closing the door again, he re-walks the perimeter, this time with his hand on the wall, to the same results.

Hondo walks back through the café and opens the door by the kitchen. The hotel lobby greets him warmly and Elliot sits at the reception desk shuffling through paperwork. 

Hondo, all but stomping, crosses the lobby and opens a brand new door. A flash blinds him and disco music attacks his ears before he can get the door closed. Moving one door adjacent, he peeks into some sort of sauna. Next to that, a barn with 3 horses lined up at a trough. 

“Can I assist you, Mr. Wexler?”

Hondo jumps as Elliot appears behind him, slight concern on his face. 

Shaking off his surprise, Hondo instead settles on dumbfoundedness, head swiveling between Elliot and the horses that blink at him unimpressed. “What? I- How? It’s not- It shouldn’t be possible?!”

“What shouldn’t, sir?”

“The rooms! The doors that go somewhere when the buildings aren’t there. The café, and the hotel, and… And the horses!” Hondo points at the horses as if they would explain everything, and Elliot chuckles. 

“I’ve no idea how it works, sir. It’s simply been like this as long as I’ve worked here. Do you need help finding something in particular?” 

Hondo shakes his head, “I, uh... I think I’m just going to explore for a little bit if that’s okay?”

Elliot nods, “Let me know if you need anything. Good day.”

As Elliot walks back to his station, Hondo closes the barn door and opens the next one. 

~0~

A brewery, flower shop, bakery, beauty salon, and racing track later, Hondo opens up another door into what seems to be an entertainment center. Several large televisions line the wall surrounded by gaming consoles, only some of which he recognizes in the slightest. In the center of the room sit bean bags wider around than Hondo is tall. The walls not occupied by screens are embedded with bookshelves stuffed to bursting with comic books. Foosball and air hockey tables stand side by side with a miniature arcade and soda dispensary, and a ring-shaped counter with high stools rises out of the floor almost smothered in playing cards and multi-colored dice. 

Hondo walks in curiously, running a hand along the counter as he circles it before collapsing face-first into a bean bag with a half groan, half frustrated scream. He stays like that for a moment before rolling over, nearly falling off the bag entirely, and stares at the ceiling. The irregular, bumpy finish almost looks like the hint of faces, and a pang of something hits him all at once, though he can’t tell if its homesickness, guilt, or a general feeling of worry and anxiety.

Probably all three, if he’s being honest.

Refusing to just sit there and mope, he stands with no small amount of effort and crosses to one of the bookshelves, scanning the titles. Captain Battle, Red Rube, Octobriana, Silver Streak, Miss Masque, The Face, and other seemingly irrelevant hero names stare back at him. Finally, one title catches his eye. It seems… almost familiar. Almost.

Flopping back onto the bean bag, Hondo opens the random volume of Magical Menagerie Girls he pulled off the shelf and flips through it almost absently. It starts with a monologue from some villain called CyberPunk as he builds and enters some colossal robot before cutting to a young woman and her cat on a couch in an inner-city apartment. 

Hondo looks closer at the woman. Something is off about her. Several minutes of rotating the comic book and squinting his eyes until they’re almost shut doesn’t tell him anything though, so in the end he shrugs and flips to the next page.

It's not until almost a chapter later when she changes into her hero outfit, that Hondo bolts upright in his seat so quickly and awkwardly that the bag shifts and he bashes his elbow into the thankfully carpeted floor. Ignoring the dull throb in his arm, he pulls the book closer to his face and examines the unique mask the woman has donned. 

“...Kiwi?”

~0~

She does not, in fact, end up to be anything even related to kiwi. Diana Taylor, aka Aura Angelica, seems to be a pretty standard, unicorn-themed superhero. Either way, her story was entertaining enough. The artist did a really good job drawing giant robots and not drawing overly sexualized poses for the heroines. All in all, it was a pretty good morning, even as his stomach started complaining.

Sliding the comic back in place on the shelf, Hondo exits the room. After a quick hello to Elliot, he’s back in the café, munching on some crinkle-cut fries and a sloppy joe. By now he is out of his booth and sitting at the counter near Angie so they aren’t shouting across the café. Their talks are pleasant, and something about her calm and charming demeanor helps to clear his head in a way he wasn’t used to back home. To sum it up, talking to her is just nice.

Perhaps it’s the change in perspective, perhaps it isn’t anything but luck, but something flashes in the corner of his eye and Hondo turns to see what it is. He spots a door he never noticed before, probably because it nearly blends into the wall. Next to the crisp, nearly seamless door frame on the wall is a picture of four older women posed with books, a flash in one of their pockets that Hondo chooses to not notice as he moves closer to investigate. 

“Hey, Angie? Where does this door go?”

The woman maneuvers her way around the counter to come see what he’s talking about, setting aside her work for a moment. “That’s where that old scientist I told you about worked. I don’t think anyone’s been in there since he stopped showing up though, so I’m not sure if it’s too safe.” She furrows her brow and worries her bottom lip for a moment before turning back to look at Hondo, “Why do you ask?”

He shrugs, “I’ve just never seen it before, so…” He trails off, and she seems to understand just fine. 

“Well, whatever trouble you decide to get into, keep it out of my café, you hear? I don’t need no mutant alien bugs or world-ending diseases getting in here and scaring off my customers.”

She always talks like business is booming. Hondo doesn’t understand why, but doesn’t mind too much either. He nods anyways, snagging one last fry off his plate before opening the door and stepping through into darkness.

~0~

Inside the lab is a miss-match of different style machinery. Some are extremely neat to the point of being sterile looking, others are pieced together in an almost archaic fashion. One pile of metal in the corner looks like it could have once been a very impressive machine, but has been dented several times over and otherwise dismantled. Mountains of books cover every horizontal surface, some left open to pages long forgotten and others with dozens of makeshift bookmarks sticking out of them haphazardly. A large rolling whiteboard sits in the corner gathering dust, and directly next to it is a tablet-like screen with a picture of a white, nearly ethereal tree with branches labeled strange words like Arkham and Ishmar. One is even labeled Fate Province, but Hondo doesn’t see any of that.

He’s too busy staring at the Infinity trigger.

It’s a lot nicer-looking than the one he built at home. It doesn’t seem newer, necessarily, but different in many ways. It almost looks more like a sister or cousin to the Infinity trigger than anything, but it’s similar enough to be unnerving. The control panel seems to be outfitted with some strange, bulky device with blinking lights and protruding wires that make it look almost like a polychromatic pipe bomb. The trigger itself seems to be glowing faintly, but it’s hard to tell through the heavy dust caking every surface. 

All he remembers is light. He has no idea what happened to his trigger, to his world, because of what he did. For all he knows, there is a doomsday device sitting in front of him. He isn’t exactly eager to go anywhere near it again. 

But what if this is his only way home? 

The thought hits him like a train, quickly followed by another. 

Does this mean that Raymond was here, too? That’s technically his entire reason for being here in the first place, right? To find Raymond? It would be a shame to come this far and give up now. And if there’s a more advanced trigger here, maybe there are other machines! Machines that would let him check, make sure his family is okay and there is a world to go back to…

...He’ll think about it. Who says the machine is even still in working order? There is a seemingly endless lab stretching in front of him, and Hondo is sure he can figure out something, but it’s all hiding under dust and books and junk. Before he can do anything else, he has to clean this place up. 

~0~

...Maybe his cousins are right. Hondo spends a lot of his free time cleaning.

It wasn’t entirely his fault his life was a mess though.

Just mostly.

~0~

There are a lot of books that need to be dragged back upstairs to the library. Hondo was able to convince Elliot to let him use a room service cart, so he is currently trying to figure out how to stack as many books as physically possible on the top without dropping them too much. As it turns out, it’s not as many as one might expect. The several-tiered shelves limit book positioning, so clearing the books out takes over a dozen trips to the library. 

Inside the library is surprisingly comfy. While the lab seems to rot during its disuse, the library ages like wine. Soft dust filters through what could only be candlelight and settles across the shelves as elegantly as one could expect. Combined with the worn book covers and classical styling of the furniture, the isolation adds to the atmosphere of the place and makes it feel homey and exciting at the same time, like rereading a half-forgotten novel from childhood. 

Also unlike the lab, the library is incredibly organized. Shelves upon shelves of volumes follow the Dewey Decimal System religiously, with each shelf sporting a heading dictating what section could be found where. This makes Hondo’s job of returning old books to their proper place vastly easier, simply becoming tedious rather than difficult. He writes down the title of each book as he slides it onto the shelf, just in case they end up being important, and goes back downstairs to fill up his cart again.

This time, Hondo opens the door to meet a pair of dark brown eyes staring back at him.

He jumps back, nearly tripping over the cart in his haste. The woman he all but ran into tilts her head at him curiously before speaking. “You… who do you think you are, young one?”

There's something in the way she says that, not angry or accusing, but curious, almost troubled. It pulls at something very deep in his chest to hear that tone, and it makes him stumble over his words when he finally responds, “M-my name is Hondo? Hondo Wexler?”

She frowns at this, drumming her fingers against her thumbs for a moment before she straightens, smiling. “Of course,” she smiles at him warmly, “Can I see your security card for a moment, Hondo?”

He fumbles his I.D. out of his pocket and hands it over. She gives it a cursory glance and hands it back to him almost disinterested as if she wasn’t the one who asked for it in the first place. When he takes the card, however, her hand stays extended. “My name is Dr. Charlotte Maddison. You may call me Charlie or Dr. Madison, whichever you prefer.” She pauses for but a breath before continuing, “Tell me, Hondo. What are you doing here?”

Hondo blinks for a moment, “Uh… Cleaning?”

She stares at him for a moment before bursting into stifled laughter, “Ah, yes. Well, ask a simple question I suppose,” she takes a second to calm herself before talking again, still chuckling slightly, “I meant why. What brought you to the lab and prompted this.” She gestures to the dwindling piles of books. 

  
“Oh, uh… I guess I’m trying to find my way home.” 

She furrows her brows, motioning for him to continue, and he does. He tells her about the farm and his family, the cave he found and all the things inside and the strange recording from Raymond. He tells her about building the trigger, fighting with his family, getting so frustrated with Great Uncle Issac that he could hardly see. And then he tells her what he did. 

“And then I woke up here, and Angie brought me to the hotel. That’s about it, I think”

At this point, Dr. Maddison had brought over some stools and they were sitting with a pot of tea between them. She watched Hondo closely as he cupped his mug between his hands, then cleared her throat. Hondo looks up at her, and she begins speaking.

“Are you familiar with the multiverse theory?”

Hondo shakes his head and she smiles gently, quickly rethinking her next words.

“The multiverse theory suggests that, while you may live in your world, there are other worlds that exist simultaneously. Within those worlds is limitless possibility. Everything not only can, but must, be true somewhere. In your universe, you are you, but in a neighboring universe you were born a girl, or you lived on Earth instead of Pax, or anything else at all. Is this making sense?”

He nods, and she smiles more genuinely, “The Infinity Trigger, as you called it, was not designed for spatial travel, but universal navigation. In other words, it was made to allow someone to move between those worlds. 

“In theory, it was brilliant. The pure amounts of knowledge and resources that each universe would then have access to were unimaginable. It could have led to the golden age of all living beings. But the scientists leading the charge didn’t realize how the worlds were held together. You see, each world has a natural barrier, like the rubber of a water balloon. By trying to travel between worlds, these scientists pierced that rubber. The universes started leaking into one another, and the multiverse started dying because of it.

“The scientists had built it wrong. The trigger broke everything when they tried to turn it on, and it scattered them throughout the multiverse. One ended up on Pax, where he redesigned the Trigger to exclude the fatal flaw in an attempt to get back home. Actually, he designed two, but the other was destroyed quite a few years ago. You know him as Raymond, your great uncle.

“One of the other scientists ended up here. Café Nowhere is, in essence, the center of the multiverse, from which all other universes are formed. It is a place containing immeasurable power and the scientist recognized this. They also redesigned the Infinity Trigger, mapping out the multiverse in an attempt to find their team. In the process of looking, they saw the damage they had caused, and it hurt them. They tried to fix it, and they mostly succeeded. They helped the multiverse and kept it from dying long enough that it started to fix itself, and all that was left was monitoring it to make sure that didn’t change. Of course, something did, and something had to have gone very, very wrong because I cannot for the life of me remember what it was. Now, the scientist is gone and the multiverse is getting weaker. Old wounds are reopening and I cannot stop it without help.”

And she looks at Hondo, holding out her hand, a question and an offer held within it.

~0~

“Well, you want to, right?”

“I don’t know, Angie!” Hondo collapses against the counter with a huff, “I mean, I just came here to find some answers, and now I’m being asked to save existence? I’m 12! I’m supposed to be back on the farm feeding horses-”

“We have horses here if you’d like.” Angie smiles, trying to ease some of the tension, and Hondo deflates some more.

“Thanks, but that’s not what I meant.”

“Well, what are you gonna do then, if you aren’t helping Dr. Maddison?”

“I don’t know. Go home I guess?”

“Why I guess?”

“It feels wasteful to come this far and just leave. I know that my family was involved in all of this now. It’s finally more than just a feeling but that’s not enough. I have to know how,” Hondo glances at Angie, who sets a cup of something ice-cold next to him and accepts the milkshake with a sigh.

“Thanks, Angie.”

~0~

“Dr. Maddison?”

The dark-skinned woman looks up at him as Hondo enters the lab, almost a whole day after he left, leaving her offer in mid-air. She waves him into the room, leaning over blueprints and a journal written in an unrecognizable language. 

“What can I do for you, Hondo?”

“I just wanted to apologize for leaving yesterday,” Hondo starts, wringing his hands together, “and I wanted to ask if you still wanted my help.”

~0~

“If you’re going to be helping me, there are some things you should know about first.”

Dr. Maddison had busied herself last night, shuttling Hondo from machine to machine and running different tests to analyze one thing or another, and then woke him up early the next morning with a knock on his door and a coffee in hand. He had accepted the cup and had spent most of the elevator ride trying to think of a polite way to remind her that he was twelve and also doesn’t like coffee. Now, they are seated at a long table in the lab, coffee in hand and the large screen with the big white tree in front of them. 

“Hondo, you still there?” Maddison chuckles a little and waves in front of his face, making him blink. 

“Huh? Sorry, Dr… What were you saying?”

She sighs, “I was saying that if you were serious about helping me, there are some things you need to know first. 

“The main thing you need to understand is that I don’t want to send you out like this. The different worlds can be very dangerous and you could very easily get hurt. That being said, I don’t have much of a choice. 

“The multiverse is structured in such a way that this place, Nowhere, is in the center, and all the other universes are branching off of it. For this reason, we depict the multiverse as a tree, with Nowhere at the root.” 

Maddison points to the base of a branch on the tree behind her, “Each of these branches coming off of the root is a universe cluster, essentially that means it is a group of parallel universes operating under the same rules, even if the events within that world are different. Each branch coming off of the cluster is a separate universe. 

“Naturally, since the multiverse is infinite we cannot map all of it. As of now, we have only mapped out 892 branches.”

She turns back to Hondo, worrying her lip for only a moment before leaning onto the counter casually. “The reason this is important is that each of these universes vibrate at a different frequency, and everything from those universes does the same. The clusters are normally so similar the difference in frequency is inconsequential, but moving to a different cluster for extended periods of time could cause someone to become violently ill, as well as exacerbate any existing damage that universe has already suffered. All in all, not a great time.”

Hondo shifts in his seat. If he was already unsure about helping Dr. Maddison, he was very unsure now. He opens his mouth to voice his concerns, but stops. 

There are nearly blinding stars in Maddison’s eyes when she speaks again, “But Hondo, you’re different.

“I don’t know how, maybe it was a side effect from Raymond’s new trigger design, but you aren’t vibrating at your universe’s frequency. You’re vibrating at Nowhere’s frequency! Nowhere is the root universe, and that means that every universe branching from it is compatible with its frequency. It has to be to survive. You should theoretically be able to exist indefinitely anywhere in the multiverse with no adverse effect, making you the perfect person for this mission.”

Hondo furrowed his brow, “And what about you? Are you vibrating weird or do I have to go alone?”

Maddison frowned a little at that, “Hondo, someone needs to stay here and work the trigger, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to get to or from the other worlds, but you will be far from alone. I will be supporting you as best I can from here in Nowhere. I can send you supplies, pull you out of dangerous situations, and help guide you to where you need to go. Plus, if you would like, you can bring people back with you. I can’t guarantee that they will be able to go everywhere with you, but I might be able to do something to buffer the effects of the vibrations every once in a while. Who knows? Maybe you can find someone else who vibrates the same way.”

Hondo frowns, but nods anyways, “Okay, that might work. Can I ask one more thing?”

Maddison motions her go-ahead, and he takes a deep breath, “Is there any way to know if Pax is alright?”

She tilts her head, and he quickly continues, “It’s just that you said the first trigger hurt the entire multiverse, and the one I had back on Pax was never tested and if something happened, it could have hurt my family. I just want to know if Great Uncle Issac is okay and-”

“Hondo, hey. Relax.” Maddison puts a hand on his shoulder and he stops, looking up at her. 

She holds up a finger, “Wait here,” and steps out of the room. A few minutes later, she comes back carrying one of the books he had put away earlier. The spine is worn yet elegant, and the cover reads _Compendium Infinite_. 

Maddison flips through pages quickly, getting about two-thirds of the way through before stopping and flipping back a few overshot pages. Then, she turns it around and hands it to him.

The book reads as follows:

_Issac Wexler looks over the control panel aboard the Exile of Fate, reading through the results the A.I. Talmadge is able to produce about the whereabouts of any Wexler DNA. These results show only the Wexlers present on the farm and a few cousins in larger cities in Pax. Issac cards a hand through his hair, sinking heavily into the captain’s chair with a sigh. Talmadge speaks, “I am sorry, sir. I cannot locate him anywhere on the planet, and there have been no mentions of anyone matching the parameters on the interstellar webs within the past 72 hours.”_

_Issac is silent, thinking for a long moment, before standing and leaving the Exile of Fate._

_Opal Wexler watches Issac from the kitchen window as he leaves the spaceship and goes into his workshop. Her hands knead faster through the dough on the counter, pushing harder as she rolls it on the counter and flattens it again. She wishes he wouldn’t worry himself so much. They both know the boy is plenty smart and capable, and stressing themselves to death won’t do anything to help him. _

_She wishes she would stop worrying so much, too._

_She wipes off her hands on her apron to accept the eggs Wesley hands her, moving across the counter to crack them into a bowl. Wesley steps out of the room, carding his hands through his long hair and fixing the band he used to tie it back before returning to the farm. With his cousin gone, he and Seth are having to pick up his duties and take care of the horses. He doesn’t mind too much, after all the late-night study sessions and dinner table pranks, Wesley owes him one. Probably a lot more than that, to be honest. He is worried about Seth though. He’s been quiet since Issac got back with the news, moving from chore to chore and keeping busy as often as possible. He stopped skipping class too, not because he was going to pay attention, but because it was safer to sleep on a desk than under a tree. _

_Wesley walks over to where his brother is seated, milking the horses, and puts a hand on his shoulder. Seth is startled out of his thoughts, jumping as he turns to look at Wesley. Seeing who it is, Seth relaxes his glare and silently turns back to his work. Wesley sighs and walks over to the corner to grab the broom, sweeping the barn, and they keep each other silent company. _

Hondo closes the book, ignoring the continuously sprawling script still being written and handing it to Maddison while she gently shuffles a box of tissues into his hands. She takes the book and steps back out of the room. He’s grateful for the moment of privacy as he collects himself, eventually setting the tissue box on the table and running his fingers through his hair. Pax is okay. He didn’t end the world, and that has to be enough for now. There are bigger things here that he needs to help with. Besides, he’s come this far already. He found a few answers and way too many questions, and he is determined to answer those too. Great Uncle Issac will just have to wait a little longer.

~0~

A few days later, Hondo is standing on the pad of the Infinity Trigger, TST in hand as Maddison busies herself at the control panel. 

“Now, you’re sure you remember how to use that thing?”

Hondo resists the urge to roll his eyes, “Yeah. I press the button and it calls you, and if I hold it I can message you instead. When it blips, I’m close to where the universal disturbance is.”

Maddison turns her back to the panels she is working at to give him a serious look, “Seriously, Hondo. Be careful. Call me if you need anything. This first world should be relatively safe, but things have gone wrong before.”

Hondo smiles at her, nodding, and she rolls her shoulders back.

“Okay, guess we’re doing this. Don’t hold on to anything.”

~0~ End Chapter Two ~0~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Buckle up, kiddos. We're in for a ride!

**Author's Note:**

> Well, that was a ride, huh? I will try to get the next one out soon, but time is relative...


End file.
